The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-30

and cotton; leaves with five longer lance
ovute and taper pointed lobes; petals vel
low, capsules more pointed than those OF
herbacepDi, wool rot adheTlng TO the sea
fibre fine, long and silky, with shght cream
color
5 c. arboreum Tree cotton, not now
cultivated for its fibre This latter Is also
known as &. retigtoSUm from the fact that
it was held sacred by the Hindus. 1t was
grown about the temples in India ana sup
piled the material for the Sacerdotal trlpar-
tite thread of the Brahnins, the emblem OF
their trinity. The plant has dark green
leaves, bears handsome red-purple Dioosol!S
and produces silky cotton in small quanti-
ties. ATTEMPTS have been made by hybrid
izing this with the more productive species
TO increase its yield, but without success
It's product is unknown TO commerce.
The BdrbddeRSe is successfully and proht-
ably grown only under the influence Of salt
atmosphere and, con sequently, its c'lltlva.
ton is confined to the coast and Islands OF
the sea, whence its name sea island cotton
On account Of its silky fineness aud length
of staple, it commands price winch JUST
flies its cultivation, notwithstanding ,hc iacI
that it produces not more than half the yleid
of lint obtained from the upland or herbd-
cc1tm, which furnishes almost the entire
commercial supply for the spindles and looms
of the world
The history of the cotton plant antedateS
in its beginnings the commercial Annals OF
the human family. India seems to have
been the most ancient cotton growing conn
try. For five centuries before the Christian
era her inhabitants were clothed in cotton
goods of domestic manufacture from the
fibre grown upon her own soil by her own
crude methods 1t is said that more than
two thousand years before Europe or Eng
land had conceived the idea OF applying
modern industry TO the manufacture OF COZ
ton, India had maturUd a system OF hand
spinning, weaving and dyeing which, dur
ing that vast period, received no recorded
Improvement. The people, though remark
able for their intelligence whilst Europe was
in a state of barbarism, made no approx
nation to the mechanical operations OF mod
ern times, nor was the cultivation OF cotton
either improved or considerably extendci
Notwithstanding the proximity Of China
to India, il was not until the eleventh CEN
fury that the cotton plant became an object
of common culture in China The hI6t
merton made of cotton in the records was
two hundred years before the Christian era
From that time down to the seventh cen
fury it is mentioned not as an object of iii
dustry, Int one of interest and curiosity;
| an Occur ant of the flower garden, the beauty
of its flowers being celebrated i'll poetry 1t
| is recorded in their annals as Il circumstance
worthy Of note, that the Emp 1ror Quit had
a robe of cotton when he assembled the throre
| in 502. In the eleventh century field culture
of cotton commenced in China, but owing
to the opposition of the people, espcCi lily
those engaged in growing and manutactur-
| ing wool and fax, it was not until 1868 that
| the cultivation and manufacture OF cotton
| We're we'll established
Central and South America, and the West
Indies, grew and manufactured cotton long
| before their discovery by Columbus, who
| found the plant under cultivation. and the
| people using fabrics made from the staple
| At the conquest Of Mexico by COrtes. iii
| 1919, he found that the clothing of the Mex
| leans consisted principally of cotton goods:
| the natives of Yucatan presented him with
| cotton garments and cloths for coverings
| for his huts, while Montezuma presented
| him with curtains, coverlets and robes of
! cotton, fine as silk, of rich and various
| dyes, interviewer with feather work, that
| rivaled the dclicacY of painting Tho plant
was successfully cultivated in Peru in the
time of the Incas in 1872. Specimens were
also found in the ancient Peruvian tOmbs
and taken to England at an carly date for
| exhibition.
Egypt seems not to have either cultivated
cotton or used its fabrics at a very early
date, since the cloths in which the mumnieS
were enve!oped were of flax instead of cot
|
| which were early celebrated for their manu-
facture of fine linen were slow to substitute
the cotton for the fax.
HerOdOtus mentions cotton fabrics $50 b.
c., and s peaks Of trees in India hearing as
their fruit tlteces more de)iclte and beauti-
full than those of sheep" The cotton fabrics
of the HiudOos have been eXCelled in firm
ness and excellence only by the productions
of the most perfect machines of modern
| 10 oft of a.
coast, gave its name to the fabric known as
calico. Taycrnice describes some of their
goods as $50 fine that you could hardly feel
them in your hand and the thread, when
spun, is hardly discernible.'
The famous Inllslifs of Dacca have been,
on account of their fineness, designated as
"webs of woven wind" it is said that mus
Inns made in Bengal are SO fine that "when
spread upon the grass and covered with dew
they are not discernible"
| Spain was first of the European States to
grow cotton. 1t was introduced here by the
Moors in the tenth century. The first cot
ton was planted in the United States i'll 1921.
"Carroll's Historical Collections of South
Carolina" mention the growth of the cotton
plant i'll that province i'll 1866. In lT36 II
was planted in gardens in Talbot county
Md, latitude thrty-nine north. At the
commencement of the revolutionary wal
Gen Delagall was said to have had thirty
acres planted in cotton near Savannah, Ga.
1t is stated that in l74S among the exports
of Charleston, s. c., were seven bags OF
cotton wool, valued at three pounds eleven
shillings and five pence n bag. Another
small shipment was made in 1874, and in
ITO three more, amounting to ten bales
In 1884 eight bales shipped to England were
seized on the ground that so much cotton
could not be produced in the United States
The first sea island cotton was grown on
the coast of Georgia in 1856, and its export
alton commenced in 1888, by Alexander
Bissel, of st. Simons Island. in 1871 the
cotton crop of the United States was two
million pounds, of which three-fourths was
grown in South Carolina and one-fourth in
Georgia. Ten years later, 1901, forty-eight
million pounds were produCed-twenty
million bounds Of which was exported.
The United States have long since OK
celled all other countries in the quantity
and quality of the cotton produced. India
ranks next in Importance in its supply OF
cotton TO the United States, but its fibre il
far inferior to the American. The other
cotton producing countries worthy of men
tip,1 ppa tlC Eoct iuIipg EfrypL RVaZil fht